After the Rain
by velvet-prosthesis
Summary: "You'll never know how important a person is to you until you lose him". He said. But he already knew that. AU, ItaSasu
1. Chapter 1

_Edited by the ever wonderful **Kyarei**_

* * *

First day of spring-

I keep thinking about

the end of autumn.

_-Basho_

* * *

It had been over twelve years since they saw each other again for the first time.

Sasuke still remembered the musky smell of his skin, when he buried his head in the crook of his neck while Itachi gave him a piggyback. The smile, he didn't remember quite so well, but their album is full of photographic moments to complete his memory.

Mikoto was extremely excited. It was like she was going to marry again, except without the dress and the guest list. But she had the ring, one that Fugaku gave her about a week ago, when he confessed that his love for her after all didn't completely die and it was a good time to restart a family of strangers. And only three weeks had passed since they met each other again. It was too sudden, Sasuke warned her, but you know how women are. And within two weeks, Mikoto spent more on clothes, hairdressers, manicures and pedicures than in half a year.

Sasuke didn't remember his father at all, but he knew he was somewhat of an authoritarian. His mother used to say that he respected him a lot, but he doesn't remember that. The family pictures gave him the impression that Fugaku was a very sullen man, with lack of motivation or something. Yet never did Sasuke spend enough time looking at his father's pictures as he did looking at his brother's pictures.

And then the bell rang.

Mikoto jumped enthusiastically and ran to the door. Sasuke was also a little nervous (maybe as nervous as her?) but he didn't want it to be noticeable. He preferred to stand still in the middle of the stairs, with his feet glued to the floor, while he watched his mother opening the door anxiously.

Two men, with deadpan expressions, revealed themselves before the entrance, dressed in fine elegance. One of them brought flowers.

"Oh baby, you brought me flowers!"

His mother excitedly accepted the bundle, sniffing intensely the smell of fresh roses.

'_Tsk, typical'_ Sasuke thought. Fugaku brought a huge bundle of red roses, to show how originally romantic he could be. It didn't matter though, Mikoto was ready to forgive him of all the anguished nights he caused her and she would try to make the flowers last as long as she could.

Itachi was…well, recognizable. Even the hairstyle was the same, with his lank hair gathered in a ponytail, now a bit longer than his old pictures. His face had elongated, his jaw line widened and his expression hardened. And being the good observer that Sasuke was, he didn't fail to notice how his black T-shirt enhanced his well formed chest and how the jean fabric clutched perfectly to his groin and ass.

"Sasuke, come down! Come say hello to your father and brother!"

In hesitant steps, he went to the door, slightly bowing his head in a polite introduction. Fugaku let out a brusque laugh and patted his head, disheveling his hair while commenting his physical resemblance with his mother. Sasuke didn't quite understand if he was complimenting him or mocking some feminine trait, but either way he didn't pay him much attention. He was too busy staring at his aged brother, whose expression revealed a sort of emotional detachment. Itachi didn't waste much time scanning Sasuke though, instead he looked like he was trying to get accustomed to Mikoto's presence, glaring at her with falcon eyes, the mother that he hadn't seen for a decade.

Mikoto ordered him to show Itachi to his room, and Sasuke obeyed, a little anxious. There were so many things he wanted to talk about with him – all the little things they didn't share over time – but at the same time he was invaded with an uncomfortable shyness. Itachi kept himself safe in his mute shell, and when they arrived at the room, he just limited himself to put his bag down and scanned the room with his falcon eyes.

"So… you're taking Astronomy huh?"

Itachi looked at him askance, as if the question itself didn't make any sense, and then he turned his back on him and walked slowly towards the window. "Yes." He solemnly replied. There seemed to be something outside that caught his interest, more than staying there making casual conversation with his lost brother.

"Are you going to college here? I didn't know they had Astronomy degrees."

"Apparently, they do." He sighed. He opened the window, and stuck his head outside.

Annoyed, Sasuke let him be in his corner and decided to go back to the other room, with his hands in his pockets. What was with that guy, didn't he feel the slightest bit of curiosity to know him? After all they were brothers. Was he upset that their family was finally together again?

What if he hated him?

That didn't make sense. It wasn't Sasuke's fault that their mother left their father and disappeared with him, without a word. It was her fault – or their father's, for being a chauvinist asshole according to his mother's words – but it wasn't theirs. Itachi should be more than thrilled to see him again. He was supposed to be more than thrilled.

* * *

Sasuke had witnessed many odd dinners in his life, the majority of them with the crazy boyfriends his mother managed to choose. He even got to live with a second father for a while, which wasn't exactly a father, just a poor immigrant that his mother married and divorced just to get him the citizenship. He even shared his room with a homeless man, back in the last house they lived in that was literary a cubicle, because his mother felt sorry for him and didn't want him to die in the cold outside during those terrible winter nights.

But this dinner was already proving itself to be the oddest dinner of his life. It was almost surreal, eating at the same table with the man that conceived him and the brother that he barely remembered. Like fragmentary pieces of an old movie, brought together to produce an adulterated reality. The memories he had of his childhood home had pastel colors and joyful laughs, but then again, he only remembered well the trees and the toys – and Itachi's hands, he remembered quite well how his brother used to hold him –, not the people that inhabited the house. And now they were all adults and aged, and the tablecloth was bordeau and the conversations strange. Fugaku asked him a lot of questions: I heard you're the best in your class, am I right? (Yes…) Itachi graduated with the best grade of the entire school, did you know that? (Ah….) What college degree are you thinking of taking? (I don't know…) Itachi is taking Astronomy. (Hn.) I also thought it wasn't a lucrative profession, until he received a letter from someone that works for NASA. You know what NASA is, right?

What bullshit. If that was true, Itachi wouldn't be with them in a nowhere little town in Japan, he would be in America. But for the sake his mother, he decided to play along.

(Yes…) Do you play sports? (Sometimes.) Itachi used to be in the kyudo club, but I don't think that's a man' sport. You like weapons?

"Fugaku!" Mikoto intervened. It was only expected; a man in her humanitarian home asking their son if he liked weapons; it was like an idiot in a Muslim home asking if they liked wine.

It was for this and other reasons that Sasuke didn't understand why they got back together.

"What? It's normal for boys his age being curious about these things." Then, he turned to Sasuke and said: "Tomorrow I'm going to take you to the police station's shooting training grounds and teach you how to shoot. How does that sound, huh? Did your mother already tell you that I was transferred as the chief-director of the police station here?

Funny how Fugaku decided for himself that he should like weapons and should be anxious for their father-son moment to shoot at immobile paper targets. Not that Sasuke wasn't curious of knowing more about his father; quite the contrary, curiosity had always been his under-admitted trait. Still, he feared that their future relationship would end up with him disappointed, or even hurt. His mother never spared Fugaku in criticism against him, painting a portrait of an authoritarian man, a bigot of old-fashioned values. Sasuke wanted to believe he wasn't really like that, or that he wasn't like that anymore, because if he was, his mother would have never accepted him back. But questions and statements like those didn't look very good on him either…

Itachi remained quiet, absorbed in his own world as if everything that existed outside of it wasn't worthy of his attention. Mikoto tried to make conversation with him, but only received half-word answers and a complete indifference for his mother's love, which left her a bit saddened.

That irritated Sasuke. After all, Itachi was like a guest in their house, the least he could do was make an effort to socialize. On the other hand, the thought that Itachi hated them, for leaving him and running away, ravaged his mind and left him a bit disturbed and uncomfortable. Maybe it was just a false feeling. Most likely, Itachi was just annoyed with the fact that he was forced to change from a big cosmopolitan city to live in that rural hole, even though – and this is where the irony begins – they were only fifty miles away.

* * *

For such a small town, the police station was really big. They had two questioning rooms, a nice waiting room, and they even had the luxury to own a small kitchen with a cook, instead of food machines like any other normal police station.

'Cops here treat themselves good.' Sasuke thought. He didn't have time to take a better look at the accommodations, since Fugaku walked very fast and he didn't even stop for casual chatting with his men. For many of them, the new guy already bringing his son to the station might have seemed odd, but then again, he was the boss.

The training room was likewise privileged, inclusively having a showcase with a barely modest collection of different models of fire weapons.

"Do you have any preference, son?"

It was strange being called son by him. Though 'son' is a very casual word. 'Dad', however, was a very hard word.

'_Anyone that fires.'_he would answer, but he opted to try to remember a cool model he could've heard from TV. Mentally he went thought the list of episodes from detective series that he recently saw, trying to recall the name of a cool automatic, but the only one that came to his mind was the .38 that all American cops use.

Yet in the corner of the showcase, he recognized a gun that he once saw in a Japanese movie.

"Is that a nambu?"

Fugaku laughed, in his brusque and hard way of laughing, and picked up the gun to show it to him. "Yes, but unfortunately, it doesn't have any bullets. Pretty, isn't it?"

Well, it wasn't much different from any other pistol, except less sophisticated.

"Itachi doesn't like fire weapons." He said. He looked disappointed, as a father that dreamt for a whole life to bring his son to watch every movie about war and ends up discovering that his son is a pacifist. "He likes kyudo."

Yeah, he already knows. Fugaku must really dislike kyudo.

"It's a pointless hobby, completely outdated. It's like learning to fight against enemies that don't exist anymore, you know?"

Yeah, he didn't like it at all.

Truthfully, Sasuke had never manifested great fascination for any form of fight that only resolved itself with aiming practice, because that wasn't fighting for him. Fighting was boxing, it was man against man, body-to-body, black eyes, broken bones and the smell of blood. That was fighting.

Artificial means like fire weapons and arches eliminated the raw adrenaline within the purpose of fighting, which ended up taking away all the thrill about nature's brutality. Occasionally, he enjoyed watching wrestling combats, even though his mother would always disapprove of it, but he didn't make it a habit. Occasionally, he would also frequent Kakashi's gym, fighting a bit in the ring, but it was only once a week, to release the stress. It wasn't a passion; it was, however, something he could see the art of its purpose.

But not weapons. Or arches.

"Come on, try this one. It's one of my favorites, the sight is almost perfect."

Sasuke took the weapon. It was heavier than he thought. For some reason, television always gave him the idea that guns have air inside.

"Put on the headphones and aim towards that little red circle."

Sasuke sighed and obeyed. Fugaku didn't need to explain to him the concept of "aiming at a target".

He aimed, closed one eye, and shot. Even with the headphones, he almost jumped at the noise. Really, how cops these days don't go deaf…

The hole he made on the paper was pretty far from the red circle. It wasn't that bad, at least he hit inside the bigger circle.

"Don't worry, you only have to get used to the gun sight. You have to figure out its inclination and correct it yourself with your aim. Go on, try again."

* * *

The only thing gained after Sasuke managed to hit the red circle, is that it revealed to be a frustrating experience. Unable to figure out what was the "problem" of the first pistol, Fugaku gave him another one, with a longer barrel. But the result was even worst. With that one Sasuke could barely hit the paper. He was beginning to feel bad, because obviously Fugaku was hoping to see some kind of natural gift for gun firing in his son.

Fortunately, things improved with the third pistol, which was smaller and lighter than the other two. It didn't take much time before he hit the red, and by the fifth shot he was almost ripping the red circle out of the paper. Fugaku smiled, proud, and Sasuke couldn't stop himself from smiling too, also proud of himself. Maybe being the son of a man of guns wasn't that bad.

It was suprising when they arrived home and found both Mikoto and Itachi in the kitchen, talking. Well, not really chatting euphorically, but the huge smile on his mother's face showed that they had shared a happy moment while he helped her wash the dishes. It was unbelievable; yesterday Itachi spent the entire day in his room watching the birds outside his window, without ever showing the slightest interest in family contact. The moment Sasuke and Fugaku leave home, he goes to the kitchen to talk with his mom.

It pissed Sasuke off, and he couldn't control the indignation tone in his voice:

"What are you doing?"

Mikoto muffled a giggle and allowed herself to reply first, "Oh, he is just helping me with lunch! I didn't know you could cook so well, Itachi!"

Itachi gave Sasuke a sidelong glance before he put down the dish-cloth on the balcony and stated: "I'm going to read a book while its cooking."

"Yes honey, this will still take a while. It was great the help you gave me!"

Promptly, Itachi left the kitchen, walking by Sasuke without sparing him more glances. What the hell…

Lunch was another odd occasion. Fugaku took the leadership of the topic conversation, commending the police station building and how he could adapt himself better in that place than in his old city. Mikoto commended the seasoning that Itachi made. Fugaku commended her hairstyle and her dress.

Great, he wasn't planning on commending Sasuke's performance in the shooting practice. After all he hit the target. He didn't even talk about their time together. Even greater – rather, annoying – was that Itachi finally decided to intervene in the conversation only to ask:

"So, how was the shooting session?"

Itachi eyed Fugaku, and then dropped his eyes back on his food again. Well, at least it was nice for him wanting to know, even if Sasuke was right now too irritated to care.

"Well…he had some trouble at the beginning. But then he managed, with a .9mm." Fugaku explained. "It seems like it's his gun. It was actually impressive, he hit the red half a dozen times."

Wow, a compliment. He even used the word "impressive".

"Really? How nice!..." Mikoto didn't know if she should be happy to hear Fugaku complimenting her son, or disappointed that Sasuke revealed to be skilled with things that could kill a person.

"Oh. Didn't you used to say that .9mm were women's guns?"

That was completely unnecessary, and Sasuke had no fucking clue why Itachi would say something like that, unless for the sheer pleasure of annoying him. His voice, however, didn't show any trace of sarcasm or mockery, just the revelation of a pure statement. He kept his nonchalant expression, but when Sasuke caught him side-looking at him he showed him that he didn't appreciate his impertinence with a pissed glare.

Fugaku cleared his throat before he replied:

"I didn't mean that. I only said they weren't as heavy as traditional handguns. But it's true that .9mm's are not as easy to manage, it takes some skill. But really, he wasn't that good with the other two…"

"At least I hit the paper." Sasuke groaned, drinking some water.

"Ah… and that's good, right?" Mikoto asked.

"It means that if someday a walking paper card threatens me I can kill it twenty feet away."

Nobody seemed to have caught the sarcasm in his comment, and Fugaku went back to the police station topic. Itachi was, however, looking at him, with a smile hidden between his lips.

Then he looked back at his food again.

* * *

His friends wanted to go to the new bar that opened near the town exit. He wasn't very willing to go, but then there wasn't much else to do at home. Itachi had just left after dinner, and his mother was uttering strange noises from the couch living room, where she and Fugaku sat.

In fact, he didn't very much like going out with his friends. They were too different from him. Everybody was different from him. They liked going to parties and going on dates, and Sasuke didn't like dating nor going to parties. That was the major difference. But he would always put on his mask and pretend that he liked it; that he liked having a girlfriend and was interested in hearing Kiba's jokes on sexual topics when inwardly he just wanted him to shut the fuck up.

Pretend. A whole life of pretending, that's what his pathetic existence summed up to. And the only way to keep his sanity in that town was to entertain himself with discreet glances at the other guys' bodies.

He wasn't the only homosexual in town. He knew there were two others, but they didn't show themselves either. Small wonder, in such a conservative town like that it was like asking to be stoned. Not that he actually believed that his friends would be capable of something like that, but he knew a couple of teenage gorillas from the gym that thought violence was the answer to deal with things they didn't agree with, and he was sure they weren't the only ones in town with a one-track mind like that.

But he didn't let it depress him. At the first chance he got, he would get the hell out of that place. He was thinking of applying for college in Tokyo. Or somewhere else. There wasn't the problem of leaving his mother alone anymore, because she found Fugaku. And he would send letters to his mother, saying he loved her very much, because she liked to hear those sorts of things.

"So, what's your brother like?" Naruto asked. He already had a beer in his hand, and they had barely arrived at the bar. Kiba was on his way to finishing his.

"An asshole."

Of all his friends, Naruto was the most tolerable one. He didn't spend hours talking about girls and making sexual jokes. Maybe because he had a girlfriend and, oddly as it seems, they were really in love. On the other hand, Naruto loved videogames too much, and when he bought a new one he started talking about it like there was no tomorrow. He could be more annoying than a noisy fly in your bedroom.

"Really? So you don't get along?"

"I think he talks more with birds than with people."

"So he's, like, messed in the head?

"I don't know. But he's weird."

Of course he omitted the fact that he thought Itachi was extremely attractive, because it didn't matter either, and Naruto would probably be shocked if he heard him say something like that. Sasuke wondered what would be the most shocking part; the fact that he was gay or the fact that his own brother turned him on. He found it hard to understand the incest taboo, since he himself was used to feeling like a taboo in that town, due to his sexual orientation.

"Sasuke, I ordered your usual drink…"

Hinata brought him a glass of whisky that he cordially accepted. Of course they weren't allowed to drink, and no barman of sense would be willing to risk his license by serving alcohol to underage boys, but the same wasn't true for girls. Maybe the center of a male's brain was really located in the groin like Ino used to say, but either way, it worked sending their girlfriends to get the drinks.

Sasuke was kind of happy to get Hinata as a girlfriend. They were the perfect cover, because she wasn't interest in him either. It was a curious story, theirs: she offered to be his pretend girlfriend to give Sasuke a good pretext to visit her house, when he and Neji, one of the few homosexuals in town he knew about, wanted to try some things together. Of sexual nature of course. But things between them died soon, and for some reason, Hinata always remained as his "girlfriend". She was too shy to break up with him, even if their relationship was completely artificial.

"There are no seats left!" Sakura showed up after a general bad inspection, with Kiba and Ino behind her. She enlaced her arm around Naruto's: "This place is completely full!"

"Who cares, we don't need seats." Kiba said. And while he ogled the back view of three giggling girls in mini-skirts, he added: "Music is cool here."

"I don't want to be standing all night!" Ino complained. "If I knew I wouldn't have brought these shoes!"

Sasuke didn't know what she exactly meant with that, since Ino only wore high-heels when they went out for the night, regardless if they were dancing all night or sitting at a table all night. Kiba replied that she was a pain and that she was always complaining every time they went to a new place, and Ino told him that if she was the one picking the places, that wouldn't happen.

While his friends bickered, Sasuke noticed a familiar figure sitting across the room, when a group of college guys moved to the right and cleared his view field. It was Itachi, in a group of three more people. They were occupying two entire sofas, and the only girl in the group was using a stool just for her bag and jacket. What nerve. A lot of people were standing and those idiots had all that space just for themselves.

Wait, what was Itachi doing there? He had already made friends, so soon? No, they were certainly old friends, that possibly came to visit him for a night out. The city wasn't that far, an hour of driving at most.

"What are you looking at?" Sakura asked, and she tried to follow his gaze. Sakura was always like that, very observant, very nosy.

"My brother is here…" He mumbled. Itachi caught him looking at him, and for a moment they made eye contact before he turned his concentration back to his friends.

'_Idiot, he ignored me…'_ He groaned silently. He could've at least waved at him, it would be nice.

"Your brother?" Ino processed that detail pretty quickly, for she was already scrutinizing the room trying to find someone remotely alike to Sasuke. He could tell she was excited, after all she had once tried occupying the place of his "girlfriend", obviously in vain.

"Where?" Naruto asked, curious.

"There." He pointed. "He's occupying the best seats with his friends like they're kings of the place."

"You could introduce him to us, Sasuke!" Sakura suggested. "Then maybe they could offer us some place to sit down and Ino would certainly stop complaining…"

"Yes!" Ino begged. "Oh my god, it's that one with the long hair, isn't it? Wow Sasuke, I love your family's genes…"

"Yes Sasuke, why don't you introduce him to us?" Kiba echoed.

Sasuke frowned his eyebrow. "Why are you so interested?"

The brown-haired boy shrugged. "To watch Ino behaving like a slut ag-"

"You idiot, you're the one that wants to flirt with the girl that's with them! You know they're older, and she doesn't care about kids like you!"

"I doubt they care about puberty girls like you either."

"F.Y.I. all my past boyfriends were older and always told me how cute and mature I look."

"Wasn't your last boyfriend a bishoujo game otaku?"

"Ew, no, where did you get that! Jealously is really ugly Kiba."

This was one of the reasons why Sasuke wondered why he allowed himself the trouble of socializing with them. Ino and Kiba argued more than an ill-loved couple, but the others found it amusing. He failed to see the fun of it.

He eyed the group in the corner again and this time he caught Itachi looking at him. Sasuke didn't know if it was some sort of family curiosity or if it was just the loud bickering between Ino and Kiba reaching the corner of the room, because Itachi immediately turned his eyes away and pretended to ignore him again. He really didn't know what that guy's problem was.

"So Sasuke, can you introduce him to us or not?" Ino asked again. She decided to ignore Kiba's last reply, which in Sasuke's opinion, was always a judicious thing to do.

He shrugged, and glanced back at their table again. He could almost swear that Itachi had been gazing at him again, during those two seconds that he distracted himself with Ino's question. Really, he was asking for it.

Sasuke wasn't of the social kind. Neither did he know very well how to start a conversation, much less introducing a group of his teenage friends to a group of adults that, unlike them, were allowed to drink. Certainly Itachi's friends didn't want to be bothered by high school kids; but, Sasuke didn't want to be standing for the entire night and it wasn't fair that four people occupied seats that could lodge at least seven people. Besides, whisky was an inhibition freer, scientifically proven.

"Fine. Let's go."

He started walking, opening his way through the standing bodies that crammed in the bar space. Hinata followed him immediately, seizing the sleeve of his shirt as if she was afraid that someone would kidnap her in the middle of the way. He could almost hear Ino jumping behind.

Itachi lifted his head when Sasuke reached near them, seeming somewhat surprised to see him so close. His friends raised their heads too, but Sasuke initiated the dialogue before they had time to react.

"Itachi, I see that you already know the village attractions." He smirked. "How about introducing your family?"

Itachi lifted an eyebrow, his usual stoic expression revealing obvious puzzlement. Inwardly, it amused Sasuke seeing him like that.

One of his friends, one that had very long hair of a gaudy blond color, widened his eyes and exclaimed:

"Is this your brother Itachi? I didn't know he was already a man." Sasuke didn't really understand what he meant with that. "I thought he was just a kid."

He let out a piercing laugh, but fortunately nobody followed his personal joke. Sasuke was ready to turn around and walk away from the table, feeling like an idiot for even going along with his friends' whines. Itachi kept himself stilled, and his friends eyed Sasuke like one watches a pedigree in a pet shop, in their snobbish superiority of adulthood that was starting to irritate the young Uchiha.

Yet the blond clown finally stopped laughing; he then stood up from his seat, and with a surprisingly polite bow, he introduced himself: "I suppose you're Sasuke. I'm Deidara, nice to meet you. Are those your friends? Come join us, nights are better with more people."

_'What a two-faced…'_ Regardless Sasuke's first impressions of the man, his friends were convinced. Ino almost jumped in excitement and immediately introduced herself. She seemed delighted with Deidara's convivial stance. The others followed Ino, introducing themselves too, because Sasuke was going to serve as spokesperson of the group. They were the ones that insisted in seating there.

Deidara introduced his friends; aside from Itachi, there was Konan and the piercings guy named Pein. Odd name for a person, but Sasuke assumed it was some kind of online chat nickname. Konan herself didn't have a very normal look either, with her hair dyed in a very bright blue, heavy make-up and a piercing on her chin. But she seemed nice, as she immediately took her bag off of the stool to let Hinata sit. Deidara had disappeared for a while, while Ino tried to make conversation with either Itachi or Pein, and he reappeared again with two more plastic stools. One has to wonder how he managed to get them so quickly.

Naruto and Sakura sat on them, while Kiba conquered the free seat on the sofa near Konan. Ino chose the strategic seat between Deidara and Itachi. She had always been a very determined girl.

"Are you going to stand there all night?" Deidara asked Sasuke, with a stamped grin on his face. Truthfully, the introduction part passed pretty quickly and by the time Sasuke realized, everybody was comfortably installed in their seats while he was the only one still standing. Though there were no more stools left and the sofas seemed already occupied with three people in each. Deidara dragged his body to the left, pushing Ino against Itachi – which only delighted her even more, and those details didn't escape Sasuke's observing eyes – and opened some space for Sasuke sit between him and the sofa arm. Sasuke took a glance at Itachi before accepting the tight seat, noticing that his brother was the only one there that didn't look very pleased with this new socialization occurrence.

"Oh my God, you are all from Tokyo? So what are you doing here?" Ino asked, in her euphoric voice. It was a reasonable question; after all, what souls from big cities are doing in a small town like that?

"We came to visit Itachi, of course." Deidara replied. "And I already knew the place. I know all places in Japan."

"All?"

"Even your houses."

The girls laughed, and Kiba let out one of this obscene comments. Deidara right away had conquered Sasuke's friends. Truth be told, the guy knew how to make people like him at will, even though Sasuke didn't forget the first impression he gave him.

He tried to adapt himself to the tight space, trying to find a more fitting position while Deidara gesticulated enthusiastically as he talked, which wasn't very comfortable. Still, he supposed it was better than being left standing like a clown. He tried to take a peep behind Deidara and Ino's heads to see if he could catch his brother's face, but Itachi seemed to be buried in his corner, bored.

Well, Sasuke couldn't say that he was having fun either, but then again, he couldn't remember a time when he really had fun. Being with his friends was something he did more out of habit than out of will. So the nights out ended up becoming a habit, almost a weekly routine, that he no longer found it difficult to endure.

He eyed Hinata, again, more out of habit than out of concern. Perhaps there was a bit of concern too. He sympathized with her. She wasn't talking as usual, but it seemed like she was having fun.

Sighing, Sasuke lifted his liquor glass to take a gulp, but an uncontrolled gesture from Deidara, a result of some crazy story that was melting the girls, hit him and made him spill the drink on his lap.

"Damn." He groaned, jumping from his seat to take a napkin from the table.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry."

Deidara also grabbed a couple of napkins and started helping Sasuke absorb the liquid out of his pants, an action not very typical even from your average Japanese gentleman. Sasuke stared at him, somewhat bewildered, eventually muttering: "I-it's fine…", but Deidara insisted. It was rather uncomfortable and embarrassing, since part of the liquor wet his groin and he wasn't sure that Deidara would have the discretion of leaving-

"Really, it's fine." Sasuke snapped his hand before it deviated further. He heard Deidara chuckling, and caught his suspicious smirk before he arranged himself back in his seat and clapped his hands saying:

"I owe you a drink. But before," he paused, "the next round on this table is on me!"

The friends approved in joyful interjections, yet they were immediately interrupted with Itachi's sudden intervention:

"They are underage Deidara."

His voice was grave, as if he was scolding Deidara. Sasuke stooped a bit to look at him and found the same falcon eyes glaring him back. Was he mad, or something? Somehow, his heart started racing and the incident of the spilled drink came to his mind, giving him a strange sensation of guilt. Was Sasuke's reaction to it natural? Sometimes it's hard to pretend to have a heterosexual attitude towards certain slightly intimate actions, but straight or gay, Sasuke didn't like that intimate level of friendly contact. It was just weird.

Deidara just shrugged at Itachi's reprimand, and waved at the barman. "Don't be a kill-joy. I remember you were fifteen when you had your first drink."

* * *

They had had quite a few drinks, and by the time he realized one hour had passed already. The general group spirit hadn't changed much, except they were talking louder this time. Deidara lead the main conversation topics, and occasionally Pein and Konan participated, echoed by Ino's laughs and Kiba's stupidity. Naruto and Sakura seemed to have turned themselves off from the surroundings, having only eyes and mouths for each other. They weren't usually that affectionate in public. Must be the alcohol.

Even Sasuke felt his head spin. He wasn't much of a drinker – in fact, he only drank with his friends, and most of the time one glass survived the entire night. Now this was his third. How in the world had he managed to drink so much in such a short period?

He looked at Hinata, and she didn't have a very nice face. She was paler than usual. Her lips were twisted in a forced way, and her eyes were opened so wide they seemed to jump out of their sockets. She had one arm gathered around her stomach, and from Sasuke's point of view, it looked like she was about to vomit.

Maybe it was all that time of pretending to like her that contingently lead him to develop honest care for her, and instinctively, Sasuke jolted from his seat and went to her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Come, I'll take you home."

She rose her head; he could see the despair and relief stamped on her face. He didn't know how much she drank, but she must be feeling really sick. Unfortunately, Hinata was always too shy and polite to express her discomfort to her friends, as she would rather wait for Sasuke to announce the time to go home.

"Is your girlfriend feeling well, Sasuke?" Deidara inquired, watching Hinata standing up with difficulty as she tightened her grip around Sasuke's arm. "You know this bar has a bathroom, if she wants to vomit."

Sasuke glared at Deidara, not really knowing how to respond to that. The natural way he said that made him feel even more uncomfortable.

"We're going home." He announced, making sure to sound loud enough to be heard by the lovebirds. Naruto moaned something, but otherwise ignored him. One more drink and he and Sakura would be on the floor.

"I'll give you a ride." Itachi stood up, surprising Sasuke. Deidara protested something, but Itachi ignored him and skirted the table, grabbing his jacket and walking towards them with his usual unexpressive face.

"Thanks, but we can walk."

Sasuke had no idea why he said that. It's not that he didn't earn any opportunity to get closer to Itachi, but there was also this stubbornness that he couldn't avoid, now more evident whenever Itachi came into the picture.

"I'm sure you can. But she," he glanced at Hinata, who was trying to find her balance point. "I doubt."

His voice had again that scolding tone that irritated him immensely, and at the same time aroused him in the most inappropriate way. Maybe it was the alcohol.

Without allowing him a counterargument, Itachi walked by them and headed towards the exit, and Sasuke had no choice but to follow him, with a trembling Hinata clung on to him. Deep down he knew it was better this way. He wasn't sure either that Hinata could make the half-an-hour walk back home in that condition.

He had seen Itachi's car before – black Nissan, rather new, he doesn't remember the model - but naturally, never had entered inside. It still had the smell of new, and Sasuke concluded that Itachi hadn't had the car for a long time. Or, he didn't usually carry people inside. He liked to think it was the last case.

They reached Hinata's place in ten minutes, but it seemed a lot longer by Sasuke's perception. They had spent the journey in silence. Itachi had this frown on his face the whole time, like he was upset with something. Hinata tried to muffle occasional moans from her pained stomach. Sasuke wanted to ask her if she wanted to vomit, but fell suddenly too inhibited and let the rigid silence in the car take control of him.

Yet when Itachi stopped the car, parking right in front of the impressive Hyuuga's household, he got out to help Hinata step out of the car and walk her to the door. He didn't usually do that, but taking her condition, and the fact that she is supposed his girlfriend, it would be otherwise weird and uncaring if he didn't. She thanked him, saying she was feeling better and that she will make a digestive tea for herself, and entered inside her house after quickly kissing Sasuke on the cheek near his lips. Another thing they wouldn't usually do, and even with all that alcohol in their veins it took some guts for Hinata to do it, which surprised him. He figured that she was trying to pull the act since his brother was there, but there wasn't really need to it.

The rest of the journey continued in silence, and Sasuke felt his eyelids getting heavy by the time they arrived home. They got out; Itachi waited for Sasuke to shut the door before he turned the alarm on, and they walked inside their home. The lights were turned off, and they could hear the faint snoring of Fugaku from upstairs. Yet, before Sasuke proceeded to climb the stairs, Itachi grabbed his arm, making him jolt out of surprise. "Sasuke."

His grave voice, calling his name, sent him shivers down his spine, and when he turned around he met those falcon eyes again, staring at him in that threatening demeanor that at that time of the night only served to arouse him more.

"This won't repeat again. Stay away from my friends."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** This chapter is not beta-ed. Possible grammar mistakes.

* * *

Misty rain;  
Today is a happy day,  
Although Mount Fuji is unseen.

_- Basho_

* * *

A week had passed since Fugaku and Itachi had moved in, yet things hadn't much changed. Once in a while Fugaku would show interest in the life of the son he had missed, asking about his school activities, if he enjoyed sports, if his school had a sport team. On one side Sasuke would feel comfort in knowing that he cared, on the other hand it slowly became annoyingly apparent that Fugaku had a subtle way of showing that he wanted to control his choices. Apparently boxing was purer and more philosophic than kickboxing – Sasuke wondered what was philosophic about punching and kicking a stuffed object. Basketball was just some shallow Afro-American game but_ "It really was a pity that the school didn't options other than basketball and volleyball."_ And Fugaku thought it was unbelievable that they didn't have Baseball, in his opinion, a quality sport. Maybe being a sport played mostly by white Americans and Japanese nationalists made it more "philosophic". (1)

Sasuke had yet to decide if he wanted to actively invest in these new father-son relationship or passively let time decide for himself. He still didn't understand why his mother took him back, but every time he tried to touch on the subject in private she would quickly change subjects, commenting instead how tired she was, oh the headaches.

Lately she had been very tired.

"I need to take some time off from this job." She would say. Sasuke didn't understand how working at Ino's mother's flower shop could be tiring. He had the impression they spent all day chatting and giggling.

"But she could fire you."

It's not that firing her was that bad. Sasuke knew they still had his grandparents' heritage intact, although his mother never told him the exact value. Mikoto wanted to save it for his college education, but Sasuke knew he could get a scholarship. Even though, she'd always say "we never know".

She worried too much.

Itachi would spend almost the whole day reading, or writing something on his computer. He started talking more, but he still seemed little interested in the family. His antisocial attitude may irk Sasuke, yet not quite discouraged him from still pursuing a brotherly relationship. Quite the contrary, the curiosity had yet to kill the cat and Sasuke would find himself frequently watching Itachi's habits; the way he massaged his thumb against the tip of his ring finger when he stopped at a certain page of the book and his eyes were no longer reading, but his mind was thinking in something else. Or when he slightly frowned, as his Adam's apple slowly bobbed up while swallowed their mother's burnt attempts at cocking foreign food.

He would registry in his memory all the book titles that would constantly steal Itachi's attention from everything else that surrounded him, entertaining him for hours in the couch. The titles varied from '_Modern Cosmology and the Dark Matter Problem' _to '_Romance of the Three Kingdoms'_. Sasuke read the Three Kingdoms too. But he didn't tell him.

He could even tell if the show on the TV would interest Itachi or not, even if Itachi wasn't a TV kind of person. Sasuke had no idea how Itachi's life had been; how it had been to live with an apparently little flexible father like Fugaku; if he missed his hometown, his friends…

Or if he ever thought about him.

Sasuke did. Not as much as when he was little, but he had always wondered about his unknown brother and sometimes he would have fantasized a meeting with him. Well, their meeting didn't go as he had imagined, but Sasuke had long before realized that when you wish something too much, reality always ends up letting you down.

* * *

"So, you and your brother, are you two getting along?"

"No. He's still an ass."

The final bell ringing had sounded already half an hour ago, but they still remained in school ground, sat on a stone bench as they watched with mild interest students and teachers leaving the school. In was more out of habit than anything else, that they would hang around a little before they headed home. Naruto would be always running towards him after the bell ring, telling about all the amazing day he had, and Sasuke would grunt first but would always accept the moment of sociability.

Maybe that was the meaning of friendship. Having someone to spend a moment with, before being invaded by the secular monotony of a village too insignificant to list on the map, and the constant solitude of a home filled up with strangers that never noticed his presence.

"Give him some time. He's probably still trying to accept it."

"You're always saying that." Sasuke grunted. "I already accepted him a week ago, why does he need to take so long?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Some people take an eternity to admit they're alone."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow, somewhat stunned at his friend's spouting. Sometimes Naruto would come with some profound sayings, yet most of the times he was still a dolt.

"I've got some tickets for the new movie." Sasuke said. Naruto knew the invitation was already implied.

"Sorry man, I already promised the day to Sakura." He forced a silly smile, scratching the back of his head, and then suddenly he turned his head around as if he spotted someone. "She's down there already, I gotta go!"

And quickly he raised his body from the seat, nonetheless failing to notice the expression of disappointment in his friend's face.

"Hey…" He had stopped, scratching his chin as in thinking mode. "Why don't you invite your brother? It would be a great opportunity for you guys to get to know each other."

"As if he wanted..." Sasuke mumbled, eyes now dropped on the ground. A snail was trying to cross over the shadow line of the bench, delineating a slow and sinuous trail between the crumbles of concrete.

Naruto shrugged, still smiling like one who doesn't have any complains with life. "Why not, he may like the movie."

It wasn't exactly that he wanted to hear, but Sasuke didn't reply and he let his friend go running to his girlfriend, gazing at the couple with empty eyes in a cold-stoned bench. Lately Naruto was spending more and more time with her. Some day they are married. He just didn't understand how they managed to spend so much time together without getting bored of each other's face.

Tsk.

The sky had darkened; some grey clouds were rallying for the final weather verdict. Once again, the meteorologist was wrong and his mother was right. And since he forgets to listen to his mother, he didn't bring an umbrella with him.

He didn't want to go home. He wanted to go to the theatre, see a stupid horror movie and laugh at the script clichés with his friend. What was so interesting about Sakura that she would always steal his friend's time with him?

He knew that, deep down, that wasn't about Sakura. It was about him. Him, and the agonizing emptiness that he felt inside ever since he could remember. It was like that stupid, time frozen town hindered him from achieving something that he didn't know quite what, something that could fill the emptiness he dealt with everyday. Naruto could muffle that emptiness sometimes, when he was around. Even if it was only temporary, and the emptiness never really went away.

The first drops had started to fall. Sasuke got up, bored and unmotivated, as if his body was being moved by a foreign will superior to his own.

'_It seems yet again that another afternoon of contempt awaits me.'_ He sighed, foreseeing already Itachi's reply. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that enjoyed horror movies. Then again, one couldn't say that Sasuke was that kind of guy as well, but it was funny watching Naruto' scaredy cat reactions and trying to deny a second later that a bad movie could get into him.

There was a vehicle horning hysterically, mercilessly rupturing the tranquility of common afternoon in the town and attracting the attention of every living creature in a five hundred meters radium. Sasuke turned his head to find the noisy culprit, and half annoyed, half surprised, he recognized Deidara in a gaudy bright yellow car calling for him. Somewhat embarrassed, he walked towards it, feeling the weight of everyone else's eyes on his back. It wasn't unfamiliar for him being the center of attention, being him the most popular kid in school for reasons outside his own will, but this kind of flamboyant attention was definitely something he did not wish for himself.

"Get in!" Deidara said, as soon as Sasuke approached the car. "It's raining. I'll give you a ride."

It was brought to his memory his brother's warning the other night, his suspicious insistence of wanting him far away from this friends, but he quickly decided to ignore it. Itachi hadn't been doing a good enough job on his role of long-lost-brother-found to win any kind of respect from Sasuke's part, so he wasn't going to compel to his whims either. Though he didn't quite appreciate being seen on the company of such a gaudy persona like Deidara and his awfully yellow colored car, and even if Naruto was a highly discussable case, one clown in his life was enough. Yet the other option was to trust the weather and hope the shy rain won't unfold into angry storm during his way back home, therefore he decided to accept the offer and get inside the yellow car.

"You were going to get wet through." Deidara stated.

The rain was still restrictive in pouring down and very little threatening.

"Itachi said not to socialize with you." Sasuke said, nonchalantly. He raised an eyebrow, when he saw that the only reaction he triggered from Deidara was some good tempered laughs.

"Not surprising."

"Mind tell me what happened?"

Deidara shrugged, as if he didn't care at all about whatever happened in the past between the two of them. He looked kinda cool with his sunglasses and the Hawaiian shirt, even with the rainy weather. Sasuke didn't know many people that could look stylish in a Hawaiian shirt.

"You know, the usual cliché."

"He found you having sex with his fiancée in his room." Sasuke guessed, sarcastically.

The blond male bursted into a loud laugh, visibly amused by Sasuke's remark. The boy mentally noted that Deidara tended to turn the wheel slightly to the right when he laughed hard, and he made sure to fasten his seat belt. However, the device didn't seem to be working.

"It's broken, I have to fix that." Deidara said. "I won't go fast, don't worry."

'_Great.'_ He grunted, letting go the seat belt. He wasn't worried at Deidara's speed, but at his wheel control.

"Our situation wasn't that funny." Deidara answered, referring to the Itachi topic. "We dated, we broke up. He's probably still pissed off about it or something."

Sasuke gasped, almost chocking on his own saliva. Itachi was gay?

"Kid, why the shock face? Now you have one thing in common. Am I right?"

"No, it's just- wait, how did you know?"

He was appalled. How could Deidara tell his sexual preferences already when they have barely met? Sasuke was sure that he wasn't that obvious. Nobody in that town aside from the Hyuugas knew about that.

"Oh you thought you could deceive me with the cute girlfriend cover? I've been there too, kid."

"Don't call me kid." Sasuke snorted, in a low tone of voice, but Deidara didn't seem to have heard him.

He probably should feel relived for knowing that Deidara understood him, but instead, he just felt slightly irritated. Did Itachi know too that he was gay? He could've said something. It could be almost despairing having no one to talk to, to share the same problems with. He couldn't even tell his friends.

He sighed. He supposed there wasn't really much to do about it. As soon as he finishes high school he'll get the hell out of there and his problems will be over. No more pretend family, no more heterosexual friends who prefer spending time with their girlfriends, no more this suffocating sensation of feeling like he was living in a place he didn't belong to.

"What are you doing here anyway? Don't you have better things to do in Tokyo?" Sasuke asked, partly out of curiosity, partly because he just wanted to change the subject. He still didn't have a formed opinion on Deidara, which frustrated him a little. He didn't know if he should like him or simply find him annoying, as he usually regarded most people he had met.

"I was thinking in opening a gallery here. It's such a nice town."

'_There is nothing nice about this town…'_ Sasuke thought to himself. Yet he opted not to voice his opinion.

"A gallery?"

"An art gallery."

"So you're an art dealer then?"

Deidara sighed, seeming strangely gloomy for a moment.

"No, I'm just starting in that business. I have enough capital, but…" He paused for a little. "My artist career is over anyway."

What a dramatic turn the conversation suddenly shifted in. Sasuke didn't quite understand what he was talking about. He didn't exactly consider being an artist a 'career', much less how something like that can be over.

"How can your career be over?"

He watched Deidara's fingers squeezing nervously the wheel, the dilated blue veins tensing along the back of his hand through his naked arms with the sheer force. His facial expression had changed completely. His brows were drawn in a hard frown, and angry eyes glittered a hidden fury that he contained in himself.

For a moment Sasuke felt alarmed, as he realized that he was in car with a broken seat belt and a driver with such ugly expression. But Deidara's humor soon came back to normal and he shrugged, smiling like the last ten seconds never happened.

"It doesn't matter." He said, choosing not to reveal to the young Uchiha what was that made him so angry for a moment. Sasuke didn't insist, he didn't particularly care about Deidara's problems. He just wanted to get home alive.

"Anyway, exploiting other artists had always been a more profitable business." The blond male commented, jovially. His humor was back, apparently. "You like art, Sasuke?"

Impressive, he said his name.

"You mean that thing they call contemporary art? Not really."

Any intellectual snob would have frown at his response, but Sasuke had always esteemed his raw honesty. What was the interest of looking at some white canvas with a blue streak in the middle and trying to understand what was the idiot who put it on sale thinking? Art was for those who had nothing else to do with their money.

"Eh, you really sound like your brother."

"Why, he doesn't like art too?"

Deidara let out another loud laugh. And the wheel span slightly to the right again.

"Itachi is like Sasori," he replied "he only likes the old dusty rubbish, boring landscapes and ugly painted women."

He didn't know who Sasori was, but Sasuke couldn't help to smile a little. He immediately undid the smile though, when he saw Deidara looking at him askance.

Being it a relatively small place, it didn't take long from them to arrive at the Uchiha family household. Deidara made most of the conversation during the rest of the trip, talking about art exhibitions and other uninteresting things, but Sasuke didn't pay him much attention. Ever since he mentioned his brother's name, he became absorbed in his own thoughts for the rest of the ride, trying to decide if he should or shouldn't invite him to the movie.

When he opened the door to step out of the car, Deidara halted him by saying:

"I'm going to throw a party this weekend. Cool people, Tokyo and music. Wanna come?"

Sasuke bit his lip unconsciously. He remembered Itachi's words again. As if reading his mind, Deidara added:

"Don't mind your stupid brother. Besides, it will be good for you. You can be yourself there, you know?"

He was obviously referring to his retained homosexuality, but it's not like Sasuke was dying to have sex with Deidara's supposed homosexual friends either.

"If you want I can pick you here and give you a ride to Tokyo, and bring you the next day."

"The next day? I'd have to sleep at your house?"

The older male laughed, not minding Sasuke's unhappy comment.

"Not at my house. You know in Tokyo, houses are not spacious like in the country side. There are only apartments, and they're supper tiny, you can barely have a friend over. That's why I'm hosting the party at a friend's warehouse. There's space for everyone to sleep."

"So it will be a long party…"

Such thing didn't thrill him, exactly; he was not the party type definitely.

"C'mon, it'll be fun." Deidara reached his pocket to remove a fancy cell phone, which Sasuke recognized to be the famous iPhone. The only guy in that town that had an iPhone, that Sasuke knew about, was Chouji. He bet a lot of people in Tokyo had iPhone, or at least made enough money to spend on iPhones.

"Give me your number."

After Deidara saved Sasuke's cell phone number, the boy left the car. Deidara waved at his through the window, and drove off immediately in full speed, making Sasuke step backwards instinctively. After the yellow car disappearing in a curve, Sasuke took yet another look at the card, thinking about the conversation in the car. He wasn't naïve; there was something off about Deidara he couldn't quite explain. It wasn't exactly normal a twenty-something years old wanting to be friends with a high-scholar like him. However, he wasn't really worried about what might be Deidara's motives or not.

He entered inside the house, took off his shoes and gazed at the space where pairs of shoes were lined together. His mother and Fuga- his father, weren't home. He recognized Itachi's shoes there.

Sighing, he went to the kitchen, served himself a glass of green juice and scrutinized the interior of the fridge. They were running out of salad. He wrote a note on the vegetables in need on a post-it to make sure his mother won't forget (she seemed to have been forgetting quite a lot of things lately). He left the post-it on the kitchen table and went upstairs.

The door for Itachi's room was semi-opened, and judging from the sounds coming from the inside, he was doing something that required some physical effort. He took a peep though the opening , and noticed that his brother was mounting something. Slowly he drew himself closer, stretching his neck to see what was he exactly doing. It looked like he was mounting a telescope.

"Do you need something?"

The abrupt sound of Itachi's voice made him jump. He wasn't expected to be noticed like that. Itachi didn't even turn his face when he said that.

"Just…passing by." He mumbled, timidly leaving the opening of the door and walking straight to his own room in large steps.

* * *

Half an hour had passed and he was already finding himself bored. He removed the game from his outmoded console, put it aside and with a long sigh, let his body fall flat on the bed. He turned his head to look at the picture of a cloudy landscape view of Fuji-san he had on the wall. It was sort of a habit for him; whenever he'd feel depressed, or bored – or both. Somehow that beautiful landscape comforted him, as if a realization that the world was bigger and greater than that town. He found the picture on a very old magazine, from an article with several other photographs taken by alpinists, most of them postcard-like. That particular one he chose for his naked wall, was already losing its colors.

He remembered vividly the first time he saw Fuji-san, in a school trip. He hated school trips, generally because they always went to stupid places in other stupid twin towns, but that one was worth it. Everyone else thought it was boring due to the long hours of journey in the bus, but Sasuke didn't feel the least tired when they arrived, and he saw that stony majesty, defying the surroundings with its impressive size and its glamorous curtain of snow descending from the top. He just wanted to climb it all the way to top and see the same thing the alpinist who took that picture saw. It must be an amazing feeling being at the top.

He sighed. What a carefree life must be one of an alpinist. Traveling through the world only to climb to the top, and do it over and over again. Completely free from outer wills, from the town's chains, from family craps, from social stigma…

Ah, bummer. He had to do something. He hated having nothing to do. Was Itachi still trying to mount the telescope? A thing like that must be expensive.

He decided to leave the room to try to peek again at what Itachi was doing. He found him on the desk this time, typing something on the computer from some printed papers he had next to the keyboard, and sometimes he would stop to bring the papers near his face as if having trouble in reading it. He was wearing reading glasses. They kinda looked good on him, even though they made him look a bit too intellectual.

"May I?"

Itachi looked surprised when he saw Sasuke at the door, this time he wasn't aware of his presence at all. Without waiting for a reply, Sasuke ventured himself inside the room by taking a step forward.

"Do you need help?"

His glasses had slipped down his nose as his face had lost rigid expression, and Itachi straightened them with his finger. Then he looked at the printed papers he had in his hand, and looked back at Sasuke. It seemed like he was trying to decide if he should let him help him or not.

"I guess you could help me putting the references…"

Sasuke took it as an official permission to enter the room and closed the door behind him. He didn't really know why he closed the door behind him.

Itachi stood up and gestured him to sit on the desk, in front of the computer, which was running a what seemed to be a very complicated program full of numbers and codes. He stepped beside him and gave him the papers he was holding, and Sasuke noticed they were full of very small printed series of numbers separated by columns. No wonder he was having troubling in reading it. Fortunately Sasuke didn't spend enough time in front of computers to damage his blessed perfect eyesight.

"You copy a line of numbers here" Itachi explained, stretching his arm to point to a horizontal row of small empty spaces in the screen of the computer. His face was near Sasuke's, and he could even smell the shampoo scent of his hair. "Rows need to match the papers' by letters-" Itachi's other hand was grabbing the back of the chair Sasuke sat in, and he could feel his forefinger rubbing against his back. He never had been this physically close to his brother. He felt his heart accelerating and suddenly found himself trying to control his breathing. Itachi's mouth was really, really close. If he turned his face his lips would touch his.

"After completing all the columns notify me."

And Itachi straighten himself and stepped away, leaving Sasuke with his task. The young Uchiha didn't know if he should feel disappointed or relieved, because that 'psychical' contact they had, albeit short, felt really awkward. He shouldn't feel so nervous near his brother, must less, he shouldn't think of doing indecent things with him. One thing is mentally agreeing that he was very attractive and his ass did look hotter in his jeans than in his black pants, other is imagining kissing him. That would be crossing the family lines.

Sasuke started typing the numbers to the computer, while Itachi was now sitting on the floor, where he had small laptop connected to some mechanical device attached to the telescope, and started typing something. For a while, a heavy silence installed in the room, and the only sounds one could hear were the keyboard typing and the singing birds outside the window. Occasionally Sasuke would look at Itachi, always finding his back facing him, and a posture denoting utter concentration on his task. Sasuke didn't want to interrupt his concentration, but after fifteen minutes of typing microscopic numbers on the screen, Sasuke decided to break the silence. He didn't come there to just help Itachi after all.

"Is this a college work or something?" He asked.

"No". Itachi replied, quickly. Yet this time Sasuke didn't need to former another question to obtain another monosyllabic answer, as Itachi further detailed more. "This is an independent study financed by JAXA (2), which I started three years ago."

It seemed that his brother was in a talking mood, so Sasuke better take advantage of that. Although Itachi kept his back turned to Sasuke and didn't bother to take his eyes from his computer.

"If JAXA is paying you for this than this must me very important." Sasuke observed. Inwardly he had no idea of the veracity of his statement neither how relevant was JAXA in the international space observation context, but pretending that he was a very acknowledgeable person didn't hurt either.

"It is."

Well, so far he managed to maintain a normal conversation between them.

"But…shouldn't you be in Tokyo, or in Tsukuba? Why are you taking college here?"

Itachi raised his head to eye Sasuke, looking as if he was wondering how come the boy had so many questions. He didn't look annoyed, however, and as he stretched his back to find a more comfortable position, he started to explain:

"The curse I'm attending here is irrelevant to my professional career. I just need a diploma to be officially hired by JAXA, but I have already been doing work for them for two years."

"So…when you're done here you'll move to…Tokyo?"

Inwardly, he was bit hopeful. Sasuke was too planning to move to Tokyo after he graduates high school. Maybe they could meet there… away from their family, their parents…away from restrictions.

"Most probably I'll be sent to the United States."

"You mean, you'll work in NASA?"

He didn't want to sound that interjectional, but he never actually considered that Fugaku – I mean, their father, was telling the truth about Itachi going to work at NASA, of all the places.

"Yes. JAXA is its Japanese partnership and they have already shown interest in integrating my research in a program they are developing."

Itachi didn't sound the least bit excited about that impressive feat. It was like he didn't even care, or that he had long ago accepted it was his destiny to be that enviously well succeeded. It wouldn't harm him to act once in a while like a normal person.

"Oh… that is… a bit far." He mumbled, not knowing what to say. He suddenly felt disappointed, sad, angry that Itachi was submitting him to this new almost shocking experience of a lost family reunion only to after a year or less be packing his bags to move to America. He didn't have the right to do that to him. He didn't have the right to come there, pretend to be a brother, make Sasuke want to desperately know him, be near him, (touch him), - no, no, he didn't want to touch him, he just wanted to fucking a beloved younger brother, before they ran out of time.

He had no right.

"But _why _did you come?"

He knew his question sounded bitter, but he was now too upset to care. He just wanted to know. He wanted to know why Itachi would bother to move to live with them when he could have perfectly stayed in Tokyo, and Sasuke would've never cared about his brother's existence.

Itachi frowned. Sasuke could tell he wasn't really expecting to need to answer that question so soon. "I had to meet my family."

What a clichéd answer. '_And what a terrific Job you're doing at that_', he thought to himself irritated. He didn't understand what Itachi's idea was. He had said that in such a natural way that an outsider would think that Itachi did nothing else than socializing with his family members ever for the last week.

However, Itachi did say "I had" instead of "I wanted". As if it was an obligation to him. Was he there because their father forced him to be there? He felt a tightness in his chest. That was… so depressing.

"Are you done?" Itachi asked, seeming somewhat hasty.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Sasuke finished the last row of numbers quickly and stated:

"Yes."

Full stop. The conversation was over. The telescope was programmed, Sasuke's help with the numbers had finished. Still – and it was starting to annoy Sasuke, this yielding attitude of his towards his brother, so unlike him – he waited until Itachi said something for him to leave, meekly remaining sat in the chair. Instead, Itachi only said:

"Now I have to find a place with good visibility outside…" He flicked his hand under his chin as he pondered, "there's quite a lot of styrax trees in the yard, isn't it?"

At first the young Uchiha didn't understand well the question, or if it was supposed to be a question. He liked those trees in the yard, which was shared by the other houses around. It was bit small, like everything else, and the trees were petit and cozy.

Oh right, Itachi was talking about visibility. Though that shouldn't be a problem, the tree-tops were roof leveled.

"Why don't you put it in the roof?" He suggested.

Itachi looked surprised at his suggestion. "Mikoto told me the window roof is stuck."

"Well…" Sasuke halted, frowning at the detail of Itachi calling _their_ mother by her name. Cold. "I can climb to the roof. And with a rope I could pull the telescope up. There's a square plain surface up there before the roof window."

Itachi eyed him, still doubtful.

"I mean, this is a computerized telescope, right? You don't need to be there to work with it, just need a clean spot to put it."

Itachi didn't seem impressed by the fact that Sasuke actually knew something about telescopes. He saw a thing like that in a movie, actually.

"The roof is quite high and the pipes are too thin to hold a person of your size." He said, as if concluding on his own that climbing to the roof was an impossible task. "It would be preferable to wait for the roof cleaning man, he brings a ladder."

"I can climb through the window-sills." Sasuke insisted. Itachi kept frowning in doubt. Why was he being so adverse of his help? "I like climbing." He added.

"Is that why you have a picture of Mount Fuji in your bedroom?"

Sasuke was baffled. How did Itachi know that? He didn't remember ever seeing Itachi passing by his room, much less _entering_ inside. He didn't even think Itachi was aware that Sasuke lived in that house and had an own room, since he was always closed in his own world.

"Y-yeah I guess…"

Crap, he felt his face getting warmer. Itachi had those penetrating falcon look again that made him feel as if he was drowning in a predatory trance, consumed by the sheer force of that engaging gaze. He looked away, unable to endure the falcon spell that was leaving him uncomfortable. He found himself suddenly dealing with the mental picture of Itachi and Deidara being intimate. It was difficult to picture Itachi, with his non-sociable attitude dating such an opposite personality, yet he was unable now to erase this abrupt and clear sexual picture of the two of them. It made him feel disgusted, as if such idea was too obscene, too offensive, yet he didn't know why.

"Okay then. Do you have ropes?"

His voice pulled him out of his mental distress, and the sexual picture vanished. Itachi was already preparing the telescope.

"I'll go get it." Sasuke said, quickly turning on his heels and running out the room. It didn't take him long, as he knew very well were every item in his house was stored, and he came back with a sufficiently long rope. Itachi had gathered some plastic, wrapping now around the legs and the computerized equipment of the telescope, probably to protect it against the environmental aggressions. After he was done, Sasuke helped him tying the rope around, while the older explained in detail how Sasuke should place it on the roof, underlining that the head should be pointed to North.

Once outside, Sasuke grabbed the end of the rope and started climbing through the windows, as nimbly as if it was on his nature, using all his strength to project his body upwards since the window frame protuberances he relied on to hang himself were very spaced between them. In a few seconds, he was already on the roof. He was glad that his mother wasn't at home, because every time he did that she would freak out.

Once at the top, he looked down to Itachi, trying to see if he looked impressed by his feat, but he couldn't tell by his usual stoic expression.

"Try not to balance it too much." It was the only thing he said, seemingly only concerned with his stargazing instrument. Yeah yeah. One word of praise wouldn't harm him. Sasuke liked to be praised. How many people can climb houses like that?

He inwardly wished his brother would praise him at _something._

Itachi had attached a compass to the telescope so Sasuke would correctly aim it to north. After he positioned it as his brother wanted, Itachi went inside to check something in the computer to see if it was working has it wanted, and then he came back to tell Sasuke he could get down.

'_Not even a thank you.'_ Sasuke sighed, and started climbing down. The fun was over, Itachi would now go back inside his room and Sasuke would have the rest of the afternoon to get bored with life. Though he didn't want that social moment of brotherly intercourse be over so soon, so when he reached the ground, he finally decided to ask, before Itachi would go back inside:

"Hey Itachi..do you want to see a movie tonight?"

He cautiously didn't mention the genre, or that he already had tickets (and no one else to go with). Itachi was suddenly stilled, gazing at him as if he was pondering in his heads the pros and cons. When he finally opened his mouth, and Sasuke thought this was the time they'd finally have their brotherly night out,

"I can't. I have things to do." He replied, coldly, quickly turned on his heels and went inside the house.

It felt like a bucket of cold water. Itachi didn't thank him for help, didn't appreciate his climbing solution, and now he obviously made an excuse to not go out to the movies with him. There was again this uncomfortable tightness in his chest, the feeling of disappointment squeezing his insides.

He was done. He was sick and tired of trying to seek for Itachi's attention. Tired of craving for some affection from the only brother he had. He felt so underappreciated that he had to fight the urge to let the tears crawl down his fight. How pathetic he was.

Fuck Itachi. Fuck his new-found family. It was way better when it was just him and his mother. Itachi didn't even have the balls to call her 'mother'. He calls her Mikoto, as if she was just some stranger that never had to spend excruciating hours in labor to conceive Mister Leave Me Alone.

He walked into his room, still pissed at life, when he noticed he had a message on his phone. It was Deidara; it hadn't been two hours and he was already messaging him about the stupid party. Sasuke didn't waste two thoughts on it this time, he sent and affirmative reply.

Itachi didn't want him to hang out with his precious friends and his ex-boyfriend? Well, fuck him.

* * *

(1) Baseball is pretty much considered Japan's national sport, introduced when the Americans visited the country in the 19th century.

(2) Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency


End file.
